Packaging is at times taken lightly and one may assume that packing does not need any particular approach so long as the items go into the packaging. This is far from true. Every packaging type has a particular set of items it can accommodate and each packaging option also has different ways that it should be handled. The cardboard packing box is probably the most abused type of packaging. This is probably since it is one of the most affordable and available kind of packaging. Also it could be due to its features which make it look capable of packing anything. To get the best service from these boxes, one has to avoid packing some things in them.

First one has to know what material makes up the packaging option they are using. This is important since with this knowledge one can know the strengths and weaknesses of the packaging. Cardboard packing boxes are basically made from paper, but strong paper at that. Despite its toughening, this type of paper will still succumb to wetness. The paper will not disintegrate as quickly as normal paper but it will slowly suck the wetness and its integrity will be compromised. Therefore one should avoid anything that is wet or containers that might spill some liquids. These could include foodstuffs, oils, paints, water and any other liquids.

One should also not pack sharp objects into cardboard boxes. Initially, it might seem that the box will hold well but one can never know what conditions the cargo will go through during transit. External pressures applied might slowly cause the sharp objects to puncture the cardboard. This could also be very dangerous for the people carrying the boxes. If the sharp objects penetrate the box, they could injure whoever is carrying the box.

Cardboard packing boxes come in different sizes. Objects are packed into the different boxes depending on the size of the box and the weight of the objects. For example, heavy objects should be packed in the smaller boxes while the bulky but light objects should be packed in the bigger boxes. This is because due to the surface area over which pressure is applied; a heavy item will easily tear the bigger box than the smaller box. The arrangement of items inside the box is also important. The heavier items should be packed at the bottom rather than the top where they will cause instability which might damage the box.

In today’s cut-throat business environment, fine margins separate winners from losers. You and your competition probably offer the same quality of product to the same target market. What will determine who gets the order and who is left with dead stock? It’s the little things; the impression you make on your customers when you communicate with them. One of the ways you communicate with your clients, albeit non-verbally, is the way in which you present your product to them. Are they getting a positive or negative image of your company as they unravel the package you’ve delivered? Or are they immediately struck at how cheap and tasteless your effort at packaging is?

To avoid such negative signals being sent to the people who matter most to your enterprise, spare a thought to how you package your goods. Coloured tissue paper is a simple, pocket-friendly way of making your product packaging captivating. Instead of handing your customers their shoes in a plain box, why not put them in a gift bag and then topping it off with coloured tissue paper to give the package a flowery appeal? You could alternatively shred the paper into strips and fill the box with them. For items of clothing and other oddly-shaped items, you could use coloured tissue paper to create a large sweet-style wrapping.  

More and more businesses seeking to establish an online presence so as to not only announce their presence to potential customers, but to sell to them directly. With an Internet connection, shoppers can browse through the websites of vendors, see what they like and purchase it right away. The items are then shipped to them securely and depending on how far they are from the seller they can have their parcels within hours or after a couple of weeks. 

Though some vendors don’t appreciate this fact, the way they package their customers goods can go a long way to determining whether the recipient will place another order from them or not. Something seemingly trivial such as using substandard packaging materials can cause a buyer to cross your name from their list of preferred vendors. So how can you achieve the opposite effect; use your packaging to promote your brand?

Right off the bat, you don’t need to sacrifice your profit margin buying needlessly expensive packaging materials. Remember the aim is simply differentiating your brand from your competitors’. For instance, instead of going for coloured metallic bubble wrap, why not protect the item by using coloured tissue paper which rhymes with your brand colours? However, even as you do this, make sure the product has adequate protection and that there is little risk of it reaching the customer damaged. The key is to combine functionality with uniqueness.

You could also think of making customised packaging supplies with your logo printed on it. This will give the buyer the impression that you take them seriously and that you’re an established brand. Don’t think of this packaging as an expense, think of it as an investment, as an essential part of your marketing budget.     

As a vendor, you always want to make sure that your products are received by your customers in the condition you sent them. This is reason enough for you to invest in packaging materials that will keep the product safe from bumps and scratches, or more serious damage while in transit. When the product in question is something as fragile as a CD or glass photo frame, the case for adequate protection becomes even stronger. 

Consider the question from the point of view of your customer. What will they think when they receive their CD with scratches on its case or their jeans in a box that is so mangled they couldn’t tell its original shape? Of course it will paint your company in a very poor light. If you fail to receive another order from this customer, regardless of the quality of your product, you’ll have no one but yourself to blame. If the customer really is king, they must receive their goods in royal condition and in packaging that reflects their importance to you.

In taking the time and spending the money to package your products well, you’ll also be saving yourself the potential loss you would incur if the product got damaged in transit. Since the customer didn’t receive it, or received it and returned it to you, you’ll have little choice but refund them and shoulder the loss.

If the product in question is food, secure packaging will not only create a good impression, it will impinge on the wellbeing of your customers. Secure packaging that keeps out bacteria and other contaminants can help you avoid a court case and the bad publicity that goes with it should a customer suffer food poisoning and decide to seek legal redress.

When delivering products to customers in far-flung locations that will require you to rely on the postal services, packaging your goods securely is a must. You don’t  know how the parcel will be handled between your post office and the recipient’s post office so you need to do your bit to make the package as taut and protected as possible. 

Let’s start at the beginning; what is a brand in the first place. Contrary to what many think, it is more than just a company logo, or the colours you see on the package of the product. Marketers will tell you that your brand is the promise you give the world as a business. It is the totality of things that come to the minds of consumers and the world at large when they see or think of your product or company. The thing that sets you apart from other companies who sell the same kind of goods or services. For instance, whenever the name Apple is mentioned, the notion of high quality, highly user-friendly consumer electronics comes to most minds. 

Forming your company brand is therefore more than just a matter of contracting the most brilliant graphics designers to craft your logo or getting the most savvy web design firm to do a sexy website. It is delving into your company objectives and defining the things that set your offerings apart from those of your competitors. How do the unique features of your products provide value to consumers? After this organisational soul searching, you need to take your research to the streets and find out what the market really thinks of your firm and your merchandise. Also find out the qualities they desire to see in your products and what characteristics they ideally associate with a great firm.

Armed with your findings you can now define your brand. This means narrowing down the key messages you want to communicate about your brand to the world. With this you can develop a punchy tagline and then come up with colours that capture this message. Incorporate this in the design of a captivating logo and a user-friendly website. The key to an effective branding campaign is not so much fancy graphics as it is consistency. Let your message and your colours be consistent. 

While anyone can have an ecommerce website built or have a store on eBay where they can sell their wares, this alone is not a guarantee of a steady stream of buyers and success. Many people ‘open’ ecommerce stores only to shut up shop a few months later when they realise that they’re spending much more on hosting and other such expenses than they’re selling. There are some common mistakes that lead to this inevitable decline and some of them are listed below.

Have you defined the scope of your business? It is unreal the number of people who dive into the ecommerce waters simply because they’ve found something to sell that they think is in demand. When demand for that product slows, they jump to another product, sometimes unrelated to what they were stocking initially. They fail to realise, as they spread their capital across a wide range of products, that their visibility online is reducing. This is because Google and other search engines cannot associate them with a particular set of keywords.

Another common mistake is setting up a website and not having a clear marketing strategy to give it visibility in the eyes of potential clients. Of course marketing means money and in spending this money, you should give yourself the assurance that you’re reaching prospective buyers. For this reason you should not put all your marketing eggs in one basket. Try and use as many channels as possible to attract traffic to your site; social media platforms, blogs, sending emails etc.

The last thing you or your brand needs is the reputation of having a site that constantly hangs or is extremely slow. You therefore need to ensure that you have the best quality of hosting you can afford. This is an area you can ill afford to scrimp on.   

One might assume that the till roll and receipt are already obsolete in this century run by all things digital. If you think like this, you could not be more wrong. Basically, now more than ever, receipts have become all the more important in the world of business and entrepreneurship.

Before we go on to discuss in greater detail the idea sought by the title of this article, it is crucial to initially understand what the rolls are. Technically, till rolls are actually rolls of paper, also known as thermal rolls, which are placed within automated cashier counters. Basically, it is these rolls which provide the counters with a steady supply of papers for the receipt. The thermal paper is named as such because the machine or the counter does not really have an ink for its printer – it simply does not need to.

At any rate, the rolls are more important than we can ever hope to imagine specifically because of the fact that the world of business would be in great turmoil if there are no receipts. It is through the receipts that business owners, government agencies, and the clients and customers themselves are able to keep track of what go in and out of the stores. The receipt, in simple terms, is the one physical evidence that would prove that you have made a specific purchase.

It is quite foolish to assume that receipts and the till roll have run out of usefulness today. If anything, they have even become more useful.

Shrink wrap is something that is most familiar to many of us. In the field of business, we use the wraps in order to protect our goods. Indeed, this is the actual and technical purpose of the packing material. However, its application is not merely limited to money-making. The wraps are, as a matter of fact, just as useful at home as they are in the offices.

So, what are the different uses of the wraps? There are several.

The most important use of the wraps is in saving leftover food. Basically, we cannot always buy the right amount of food all the time. More often than not, we buy more than we can actually eat. Most of us prefer buying more than less because, well, we do not want to end up having insufficient amount of food. The problem now arises especially when it comes to making sure that the food does not get spoiled. Putting them in the ref is sometimes not enough as microscopic microbial organisms can get through. The ensure that they stay edible, we make use of the wraps. You do not need to be skilled to make use of the wraps. As a matter of fact, all you need to do is spread it all across the food so that every single surface is covered. The best thing about it is that it is elastic, so you can actually have an airtight protection for your food.

Of course, the next use of the wrap is in protecting some sensitive materials. Whether you want to mail these sensitive materials or not, it is still advisable to wrap them first in some shrink wraps. The reason why they are named as such is precisely because of the fact that they expand and compress in order to make sure that every inch of your goods are covered and unexposed to the elements.

If you are engaged in business, especially in the packing business, you need to make sure that you have a stable and reliable supply of wraps. You must not rely solely on the other types of packing materials because, well, they are never enough to guarantee the protection of your goods. You must understand that you do not use any packing material singly. You have to use it with other packing materials. For instance, a cardboard box is most effective if you use bubble and shrink wraps with it.

Shrink wrap is often named as the mother’s best friend. This is because of the aforementioned uses that the packing material has earned that title. 

Document enclosed wallets are some of the less known packing materials which are available in the market today. Little is known about it, as a matter of fact, that very few know it even exists. If you google it, you would never be able to find any article discussing what it is or what it is for. Of course, you will be able to encounter a lot of websites selling these packing materials. So, basically, answering the question posed in the title means that we need to understand first what the packing material is. What then, is it? The truth of the matter is that it is, as a matter of fact, a special type of envelope. Indeed, it functions like an envelope, and it looks like an envelope – more or less.

Just like an envelope, the document enclosed wallet comes in many sizes. As such, we can say that you will be able to use this packing material in order to mail or send documents of any sizes.

How does this packing material differ from normal envelopes? Basically, the document wallet, as the name implies, is for mailing official and formal documents. This also means that the documents contained in the packing material are confidential in nature. This is because this material, as the name again suggests, is self sealing. The moment you close it, you will never be able to open it again without actually damaging the envelope. Hence, this is the best type of packing material to ensure the confidentiality of your documents. Other types of envelopes can offer a degree of protection from tampering, but none come close to the actual protection given by the documents enclosed wallets. It goes without saying, therefore, that this type of envelope is most useful for high-level communication – those types of communications which can only be seen, heard, or read both ends of the line.   

There are many ways of communicating with people. One could do it one on one in a direct manner; this is the most common way that people communicate and have communicated. Another way is by using technology appliances such as phones. This is also a one on one approach and is also quite effective. We could also communicate to multiple people at the same time, i.e. one person sending a similar message to multiple people, also known as mass communication. This can be done in rallies, meetings, crusades etc. One could also use the help of radio or TV to pass across the message.  The use of a notice board is another way to communicate a message to many people; especially a certain kind of people in one area or building.

A notice board is basically a board where written messages are stuck for people to read. There are two major types of notice boards available today; the pin board and the magnetic notice board. The pin board notice board is what has been used mostly and the magnetic board s the newer invention. The pin board notice board consists of a spongy material that is at times made from cork. Sheets of paper containing the printed or written messages are stuck to the board using pins and removed when their time on the board expires. A disadvantage of these boards is that due to the frequent puncturing and extraction, the board disintegrates very fast. In the magnetic boards, the board consists of a metallic panel where one can stick messages using magnetic items.

To be able to use a notice board in the most effective way, one should make sure that the board is as noticeable as possible. This is so as the message can be able to be seen by all who pass nearby. This can be done by strategically placing the board in the most frequented place that is also well lighted so that the messages can be clearly seen. The notice board should also be made to be as alluring as possible. Some are made to have attractive colours such as white or some metallic shiny colours. The board should also be elevated to be seen by all. The elevation level should not be too high as this will make people to strain too much to see the messages.

The messages that are stuck on the notice board should also appeal to the eye. They should also be arranged on the board accordingly so as to make it easy to read them.